Thursday 13th July – Montgomery AL

Today we’ve arrived at the state capital of Alabama and booked into a campground within a national historical monument called Fort Toulouse.  This fort was built in 1717 by the French at the invitation of the local Indians.  The fort was named for Count de Toulouse, a legitimized son of King Louis XIV.  Eventually the French lost possession of the fort and all of French Louisiana at the end of the Seven Years War (French & Indian War) in 1763.  It then became part of the British colony of Georgia but the fort remained abandoned.  General Andrew Jackson arrived in 1814 and American forces built Fort Jackson on the same ground as the French had built Fort Toulouse so many years before. 

                                                        Remains of the original fort

                                This is a reconstructed replica of Fort Toulouse III (1751-1763)

Friday 14^th July

Today we went in to see the historical areas of Montgomery.  First stop was the Alabama Capitol building which was built in 1850 and replaced an earlier construction that was burned.  The Confederate States of America was born in the Senate Chamber where delegates from Southern states voted to establish a new nation.  A little over a century later, the 1965 Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March led by the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr ended on the street in front of the Capitol.  In 1960 the United States Secretary of the Interior designated the Capitol as a National Historic Landmark

                                          The Alabama Capitol with all the state flags

                                                  The domed roof area of the top floor

                                                      The staircase to the next level

This is a memorial to all the armed service men and women who died between 9/11/2001 and 10/1/2014 in the fight against terrorism

                                    This is the senate where they passed the legislation

                                                     Bell at the side of the capitol

We then went to the Department of Archives & History for an interesting couple of hours about the first people to inhabit the area and also some history of the states involvement in the Great War

                   And look we found another friend for Minnie, however this one is very old

                             As you can see this was the first white house of the confederacy

This is the little church in Montgomery that Martin Luther King Jr used to preach in

After a nice Mexican lunch we caught up with the legendary Hank Williams who lived and died in Montgomery

                                               Inside the Hank Williams museum

Hank Williams gravesite, they had to replace the grass with artificial turf as everyone was taking a piece

The last stop was the Civil Rights Memorial Center, this would have to have been the most emotionally moving part of our day.  The treatment of Afro Americans in this country in years gone by defies belief.  The center covers the years between 1954 and April 4 1968 when Dr Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated as he prepared to lead a demonstration in Memphis for the Civil Rights Movement.  The center promotes tolerance of all people no matter what the colour of their skin, what religion, what sexual orientation they are.  We were so inspired we added our names to the many before us on the wall of tolerance.  This is a must see if you ever go to Montgomery Alabama.